Illustrator in 60 Seconds: How to Create an Emoji Icon

Welcome to our Illustrator in 60 Seconds series, in which you can learn an Illustrator skill, feature, or technique in just a minute!

Illustrator in 60 Seconds: How to Create an Emoji Icon

In today's video, we're going to quickly learn how to create a cute little emoji icon, using nothing more than some basic shapes that we're going to adjust here and there.

So, assuming you already have Illustrator running in the background, bring it up and let's get started!

Also, don't forget you can always expand your collection by heading over to Envato Elements, where you'll find a great selection of emojis.

How to Create an Emoji Icon

Start by setting up a new web document, which we will adjust by setting both its Width and Height values to 96 px.

Create the main shape for
the body using an 88 x 88 px circle (#FFDA64),
which we will color using yellow and then center align to the larger Artboard.

Add the mouth using a smaller
64 x 64 px circle (#8E735C), which we will color
using brown and then adjust by selecting its top anchor point using the Direct
Selection Tool (A) and then immediately removing it by pressing Delete.

Create the teeth using a
white (#FFFFFF) 56 x 8 px rectangle, followed
by the tongue using a 40 x 20 px ellipse which we will color using orange (#F9914B). Group and then mask the two using a
smaller 56 x 56 px circle.

Finish
off the icon by adding the eyes using two 12
x 12 px circles with a 4 px
thick Stroke (#8E735C), which we will position 20 px from one another. Then remove their bottom anchor points.

Position the resulting shapes at a distance of 14 px from the mouth’s top edge, making
sure to set their Cap to Round.

Learn More From Our Awesome Tutorials!

Want to expand your icon-building skills? Start now by checking out these in-depth tutorials that will help you bring your icon game to the next level!